The new ban on a drug that is widely used by the Somali community has been condemned as “ludicrous” by drug support services in Cardiff.

Possessing, selling and importing khat – a plant that is used as a stimulant by Somali, Ethiopian, Kenyan and Yemeni communities – became illegal yesterday.

Ibrahim Harbi, of the Somali Integration Society in Cardiff, said use of the drug among the local Somali community had escalated in recent years, due to social problems, such as unemployment.

“I think the ban is a good thing, but my worry is that the community could be criminalised for something that is part if their culture and their traditions,” he explained.

“There certainly needs to be a programme of education to go along with this and support for those individuals who are addicted, because otherwise, a lot of people are likely to carry on. The Government needs to see the bigger picture.”

Martin Blakebrough, of the Kaleidoscope Project, which provides support to people with drug and alcohol problems in South Wales, condemned the ban as “ludicrous”.

“I think it is a silly move,” he said. “Khat has been around for a long time and the law will disproportionately affect people from ethnic minorities.

“It is a mild stimulant and it is true that some people have had difficulties with it, but no more so than with legal drugs, like alcohol and tobacco.”

He added: “A lot of the people who will be affected by the ban do not even drink alcohol and they would argue that khat is a similarly social drug.

“The new law will just push it underground and prompt some of these people to take other drugs, which can be much more dangerous.”

Khat, which makes users feel more alert, happy and talkative when chewed, is now banned as a class C drug, despite advice from official Government advisers that it should not be classified.

Danny Kushlick, director of Transform Drug Policy Foundation, said: “Yet again the Government has ignored the advice of its experts and prohibited another drug.

“As ever, it will serve to create a new income stream for organised crime and that insurgents could profit from.

“At the same time it will unnecessarily criminalise a minority group of Somalis and Yemenis, and deprive producers overseas of much needed legitimate revenue.

“It is high time that the legal regulation option was considered, not only for khat, but for other prohibited drugs.”

Around 2,560 tonnes of the drug, worth £13.8 million, was imported to the UK between 2011 and 2012, bringing in £2.8 million of tax revenues.

In a written statement earlier this year, Theresa May said despite the recommendation of the Advisory Council on Misuse of Drugs not to ban khat, the body acknowledged that there was an absence of robust evidence in a number of areas.

The Home Secretary said the whole of northern Europe and the majority of other EU member states have banned khat, as well as most of the G8 countries including Canada and the USA.

Mrs May said failure to take action in the UK would place the country at serious risk of becoming a single hub for the illegal onward trafficking of khat to countries where it is banned.

Chief Constable Andy Bliss, national policing lead for drugs, said: “Enforcement of the khat ban will be firm but proportionate.”